Oral Health in American eiders has improved dramatically over the past 5 decades, yet important disparities in oral health status and access to care remain among the frail, chronically ill, the poor, and "minority" elders. We propose a two-day workshop to be held in Boston on September 13 and 14, 2004. This workshop, planned as a follow-up to "Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General" (2000), will critically examine what we know and what we need to know regarding determinants of access to dental care and oral health among elders. We will develop and prioritize recommendations for research related to access to, and financing of oral health care among elders, as a prelude to the development of a plan for improving access to oral health care for underserved elders. Thus the specific aims of this conference are to: 1. Systematically review national (US) data on access to dental care among community dwelling as well as the frail and institutionalized elderly; 2. Examine determinants of access to care and oral health among older Americans; 3. Examine disparities in access and oral health among the poor, and racial and ethnic minorities; 4. Compare the access to dental care in the US with access in other developed nations with aging populations; 5. Systematically review the financing of dental care among the elderly, including the frail, the poor and racial groups in the US and around the world; and 6. Describe what we know and need to know about improving access to oral health care for elders including options for financing elders' dental care in the future. Systematic reviews of the literature will be prepared prior to the two-day workshop to serve as background papers. These papers will be revised based on discussions at the workshop, and submitted with recommendations for further research and a plan of action, as a package for publication in the Journal of Dental Education. Summaries of the workshop and Research agendas will be submitted to Journal of the American Dental Association, Health Affairs and Special Care in Dentistry as well as Consumer publications from the AARP, the Older Women's League and the Gray Panthers. [unreadable] [unreadable]